First Impressions - what lawyers can learn from Stephen Fry

The Stephen Fry television series "Planet World" is fascinating, as is most Stephen Fry productions. The second episode looked at different accents and dialects. At one point Mr Fry visits a call centre in Newcastle, making the point that the "Geordie" accent has now become desirable in England. More interestingly, when a call needs to be escalated, the manager preferably has a more classic or "BBC" accent. The Geordie accent is considered to be trustworthy and helpful, the BBC accent to be authoritative. A brand consultant interviewed, makes the point that, on a call, the accent of the person taking the call is one of the only sensory ways of "delighting the customer". All fine and well for a call centre, you might say but how is that relevant to me?

Make an “secret shopper” phone call to your own business – whether that is an in-house legal department or a law firm. What's your impression of how the call is answered? Does the tone, terminology, approach and accent accord with the way you want to present to your clients? Was your call handled with respect and were you transferred quickly to someone who could handle your query?

A major Australian department store yesterday announced it may close its stores on Sundays due to the cost of weekend penalty rates. However, discussion around the water cooler amongst some well practised shoppers brought universal agreement that the terrible service at Myer stores, including the inability to find staff to serve the customer, was a reason most of us did not shop there.

Toby Brown (@gnawledge) in a recent blog post “Commodity does not mean what you think”, noted that “commoditised” work is increasingly the available work for law firms. Clients assume a level of quality in delivery of this work, and therefore the distinguishing factor is the experience. That first contact forms the client’s first impression about what their experience with you will be like. Whether it is how the call is answered, the focus and content of your website, or something else, test out that first point of contact to ensure that the impression given is the one you want.